A New Uniform for DIY Dentistry

By Paul Lukas, on January 10th, 2014

As you can see in the image above, the baseball being held in the right-hand portion of the frame has a string tied to it. What you can’t see is that the other end of the string is tied to a tooth in the mouth of the little girl. You can probably surmise the rest, but go ahead and play the video — it’s fun. The best part, of course, is that the boy, who’s the little girl’s brother, wore his Little League uniform for the occasion.

This is one of hundreds, maybe thousands, of YouTube videos that show a loose tooth being pulled out by a string and a moving object. Often the moving object is a slamming door, but there are also lots of less conventional approaches. This phenomenon is the subject of a new article I’ve written for Slate. It was super-fun to work on, and I think you’ll enjoy it (even though the video shown above is the only one that involves a uniform). Link coming soon. ”” Paul

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Meanwhile, there were new developments yesterday on two stories I’ve been reporting on recently:

1. The Indians spent a good chunk of yesterday trying to push back against my tweet about their logo redesignation and the ensuing shitstorm that has engulfed them over the past two days. First they said, “There’s no process to eliminate Chief Wahoo,” which is not particularly relevant because my tweet didn’t say they were eliminating Chief Wahoo. Then Cleveland’s NBC-TV affiliate reported (a) that the Indians had no plans to change their uniforms (which isn’t relevant because my original tweet specifically stated that there would be no change to the uniforms) and (b) that I had “erroneously tweeted” that Wahoo was being “phased out” and “demoted.” The first part of that is flat-out wrong — my tweet never stated that Wahoo was being “phased out.” As for the second part, regarding Wahoo being “demoted,” let’s go back to the first article I linked to — this one. It includes the following:

[Indians Director of Communications Curtis] Danburg added that the designation of the Tribe’s logo that Major League Baseball uses might change.

“It’s a nature of changing the, maybe the designation that you might see that Major League Baseball uses in their style guide, which is a more of a discretionary change. It’s nothing to do with the approach in locally how we use it or anything to read into.”

And with that, the Indians have just confirmed my story, which is that the team is redesignating the block-C as its primary logo and redesignating Wahoo as its secondary logo. That’s all my tweet ever claimed, and it is indeed listed as a change in the 2014 MLB Style Guide. If Danburg thinks it’s irrelevant, or just a “discretionary change,” as he put it, perhaps he’d like to explain why the change was made in the first place. Someone in Cleveland’s front office clearly thought the redesignation was worth doing — it’s pretty lame to pretend now that it’s inconsequential.

Meanwhile, it would be nice if Cleveland’s NBC affiliate would apologize for reporting that my tweet was “erroneous,” but I’m not holding my breath. Apology has been issued, and the story has been updated/corrected.

Finally, I wrote an ESPN piece about this situation yesterday afternoon — look here.

2. Just as a little birdie had told me (and as I, in turn, had told you), Notre Dame will be switching from Adidas to Under Armour. I realize this is a Very Big Deal in some circles, but to me it’s just one fairly loathsome corporation outbidding another fairly loathsome corporation. The Irish will still look like the Irish, except for the Shamrock Series games, when they’ll presumably look like clowns, but that’s nothing new. Same shit, different douchebags.

Hockey News: “I was watching the launch of the Antares rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station,” says Paul Gabrielsen. “During coverage of the launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, NASA TV showed the control room of Orbital Sciences, who built the Antares rocket. It looks like many of the control room staff were wearing red-and-white hockey-style jerseys.” … Jordan Lazinsk notes that the Bruins’ website has striping at the bottom of the page that matches the hemline striping from the team’s 1977 through 1995 jerseys, not the stripes that they currently wear. … Oh baby, look at these shots from the festivities surrounding the 1977 WHA All-Star Game, which was held in Hartford (great stuff from Bruce Menard).

Basketball News: San Diego State hoops fans displayed stars the other night in tribute to former Padres announcer Jerry Coleman, whose signature phrase was “Hang a star on that one!” (from Tom Mulgrew). … Chris Denson of Auburn was missing the little “AU” logo above his NOB last night (from Clint Richardson). … We will, we will Rock U. That’s Rockhurst University (from Kyle Piercy). ”¦ An Arizona high school has been told that its new gray uniforms are not up to code (from Raymie Humbert). ”¦ This is funny: In last night’s Ole Miss game, freshman Sebastian Saiz pulled off his warm-up top while running to check into the game, only to discover that he wasn’t wearing his jersey! He quickly doubled back to the bench, found his jersey, and put it on (screen shots by Paul Deaver). … If NBA team logos were reimagined as soccer team logos, they might look like this (from Tony Margherita). … LeBron James suffered a torn jersey last night. … The Nets and Heat will finally play the NBA’s first all-nickNOB game tonight.

92 comments to A New Uniform for DIY Dentistry

Grammar police: Maurice Clarett was most likely at a “news” conference.

scottrj|
January 10, 2014 at 8:31 am |

That’s likely a screenshot from the “Youngstown Boys” documentary that premiered on ESPN recently. Clarett’s story at the time was that he put the jersey on backwards by mistake, but then didn’t reverse it b/c he had a cut on his finger and didn’t want to risk getting blood on it. Which besides being transparently lame on its face, is belied by how his career unfolded thereafter.

I’m just wondering when somebody is going to do US-style logos for EPL teams – Thor for West Ham’s Hammers, a rooster on steroids for Tottenham, Rambo with about a kajillion guns for Arsenal…

terriblehuman|
January 10, 2014 at 10:22 am |

I smell a contest!

Though Hull City A.F.C./Hull City Tigers/Hull Tigers might beat us to the punch.

Padday|
January 10, 2014 at 8:16 am |

Did you hear that people? Paul said that the Pirates are “demoting” their pirate logo and looking to “phase it out” and “eradicate it from recorded history” and that he is “definitely part of some sinister liberal conspiracy to destroy our freedom of expression” and that he “hates tradition” and ” above all else really loves Hitler.” It’s all right there in black and white.

It’s amusing to read about the baseball undershirt sleeve protests, considering that (according to Okkonen) long jersey sleeves had still been in the game as late as 1929, and the Cardinals had white undershirts as late as 1950.

In the case of the Perry highschool basketball teams grey jerseys… when I was in highschool in Scottsdale Arizona my football team had a BFBS uniform that was banned because it didn’t have a school color on it… I assume this is why they are banning theirs even after reading the article.

Seems like a definite trend of MLB teams adopting their cap logos as their main logo, or at least a single letter as the logo.

The Tigers two years ago switched to the Old English D — the jersey version — and the Pirates announced their change to the P. Now add Cleveland’s change. The New Astros logo is pretty much the cap logo, too. The Angels, too, I think.

Actually, the Indians have been slowly (extremely slowly) phasing down the wahoo logo. Look at the caps from the mid-90s glory days to now. Notice how HUGE the wahoo was. They have also taken to not using it as much in promotional material and official merchandise.

random reader|
January 10, 2014 at 9:23 am |

That’s one thing that seems like it gets lost in discussion about the gradual phasing-out of Chief Wahoo. The logo on the caps was, relatively speaking, much bigger than it is now.

I think it was 2002 or 2003 when the Indians switched to the smaller Chief Wahoo on the caps and had also introduced an alternate cap with an “I” in cursive. They also changed the color of their caps to a lighter shade of navy (it had been a dark midnight navy).

Tony C.|
January 10, 2014 at 11:46 am |

you could say the Tigers were slowly phasing out their “D” then because it was much bigger in the 90s than it is now.

arrScott|
January 10, 2014 at 4:01 pm |

Chief Wahoo worked better, as a cap logo, in the old, bigger proportions. Whereas to my eye, the Tigers look better with the smaller cap D than the larger.

Brendan the Aspie|
January 10, 2014 at 8:51 am |

How many consecutive days are you going to mention that the Pirates and Indians changed their logos? We’ve closed the book on the Indians and the Pirates’ change was known a month ago, so it’s probably time to move on to another topic.

As a Buccos fan I am happy with the change to the P as the primary. I was never a fan of the Pirate logo aesthetically.

I can’t comment on it’s impact on and/or how it is viewed from the Pirate-American community. Admittedly I have never raped and pillage so I can’t identify with them. However, I do know Captain Crunch, Captain Hook, and Captain Morgan have all made statements supporting the Pittsburgh Pirates progressive decision. They also stated it’s time for the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Oakland Raiders to follow the Pirates lead.

Richard Stover|
January 10, 2014 at 9:16 am |

I’m confused, who then, wrote this?: “In any case, this would appear to be the latest step in the now well-established path toward Wahoo’s inevitable mothballing.”

“Phased-out”/”Inevitable mothballing”. He says tomato, I say tomahto.

I fail to see a “shitstorm” and the neediness to expect insincere apologies. Really, the whole thing is just juvenile.

That’s a follow-up analysis on my part. But that’s not what the NBC affiliate claimed was erroneous — they claimed my *tweet* was erroneous. And it was not.

Richard Stover|
January 10, 2014 at 9:37 am |

No, No, No, No, No,

“And with that, the Indians have just confirmed my story, which is that the team is redesignating the block-C as its primary logo and redesignating Wahoo as its secondary logo. That’s all I ever claimed, and it is indeed listed as a change in the 2014 MLB Style Guide.”

“That’s all I’ve EVER claimed” conflicts with “Wahoo’s inevitable mothballing” whether or not it was a follow-up or not.

To fall back on the “tweet” part, when someone at ‘KYC may have read your blog post is ridiculously spitting hairs. Anyone could make that error – if you an call it that. Paul, no one is that perfect.

But I’m not splitting hairs — the ’KYC report *speciically said my tweet was erroneous.* Go read the relevant graf — they went out of their way to refer to the tweet.

Here’s the bottom line: A lot of people jumped to faulty conclusions about what the logo redesignation may mean. That’s where the shitstorm came from — people not understanding how logo redesignations work. But that’s not my fault or my problem. My tweet specifically said there would be no uniform changes, and my follow-up analysis went into more detail regarding what it would and wouldn’t mean. If other people jumped to faulty conclusions, and if the team is pushing back against that, I shouldn’t get caught in that crossfire. My reporting has been solid and straightforward.

FYI, just had a nice phone chat with Indians communications director Curtis Danburg. The gist:

1) He confirmed that the logo redesignation story is accurate.

2) He thanked me for consistently being clear about what the logo redesignation does and doesn’t mean.

3) He said the story has migrated to other media outlets “like a game of telephone,” with each outlet distorting and misunderstanding the implications of the redesignation.

Nice fella.

Richard Stover|
January 10, 2014 at 9:39 am |

Ha, spitting hairs. My error.

Mark in Shiga|
January 10, 2014 at 9:20 am |

So the first throwback jersey for the Cubs this year will be that of the 1914 Whales, in the Federal League — the first team to play in Wrigley Field.

The Cubs had much better uniforms than the Whales that year (dark blue on the road!), but as a nod to history, it’s a pretty good idea.

I wonder if these alternate gray road uniforms with the block CUBS on the front will have NOBs or not. I hope not — as a traditional team the Cubs should have at least one number-only game jersey. I’d prefer it be the home jersey, and really hope that the next home redesign is this way, but we anti-NOB partisans will take anything we can get.

If they’re doing one throwback uniform per decade, I imagine they’ll have to allow for wearing road jerseys at home, because the home uniform hasn’t changed much in the last 60 years.

Since the 1910s and 1920s seem to be decided already, here are my votes for the upcoming decades (I’m assuming it’s in calendar decades, not 1914-1923, 1924-1933, etc.):

1930s. Check out that awesome blue placket down the front! Put some red-outlined blue numbers on the back in the classic Cubs font and you’ve got something special. I wouldn’t mind seeing that as the regular home uniform any time.

1940s. Bring on the pale blue! After more than 20 years of dull, insipid gray, the Cubs come back to their senses and bring back the blue. The white letters and numbers are a nice twist.

1950s. This was a dull decade for the Cubs, both on the field and sartorially. I like the plain white home uniforms, though, and 1956 was the last year of them before pinstripes came back to stay the next year.

1960s. First year with the bear head patch that we’ve come to love: 1962. This is a pretty solid road uniform and the red borders liven it up quite a bit. I say wear this road outfit for the throwback game.

1980s. A classic road uniform that always looks good. I’m not sure which years this had vertical arching in the NOB — up to ’85? — but that’s the way to do it.

1990s. Team Cuba. I never liked the smallish three-layer back numbers, but the front is boss.

2000s. The only shakeup in the 2000s was going back to NNOB at home for both the pinstripes and the solid blue alternates. I love these; these should be the regular home and road uniforms every year. Just learn to position the numbers better; they’re much too low. I say use this pinstripe uniform for the throwback game and then keep that look every year.

Hank-SJ|
January 10, 2014 at 9:25 am |

WHA All-Star house band is a bit reminiscent of Happy Klein and the Myrth Makers of Fernwood Tonight fame.

ScottyM|
January 10, 2014 at 9:28 am |

Whew, that Charlotte Knights inaugural season logo is terrible work.! The whole identity is terrible work. That is all.

Tank|
January 10, 2014 at 10:05 am |

I feel like Brandiose is really mailing it in with these redesigns. To me, they seem to be doing too much just for the sake of making a ‘sick’ design. Less is more sometimes.

ScottyM|
January 10, 2014 at 12:50 pm |

Agreed, Tank. The ubiquity across their recent work is astounding. Feels “forced” in so many ways. They have a “template” and by golly they’re going to follow it.

arrScott|
January 10, 2014 at 3:58 pm |

Are you sure this is a supply issue? Might it not be a demand problem instead? As in, Team C sees that Teams A and B have increased revenue after a Brandiose redesign, and so Team C says to Brandiose, “Give us some of what you did for Teams A and B.”

I mean, sure, Brandiose does seem to have a bit of a house style, but they do from time to time produce a team identity that’s distinct from the house style. That at least suggests that the other teams are asking for work that’s close to the house style. For whatever reason, that’s what minor-league team owners want.

ScottyM|
January 10, 2014 at 7:02 pm |

In a word, no. They have a stroke to their design that’s nearly universal.

The Cincy Reds Mr. Baseball stands apart as NOT having this style. But Charlotte Knights, Arkansas Travelers, El Paso, Akron, etc., check out the way they “lock-up” the alternate icons: Arkansas’ “LR” lock-up, Charlotte’s swirly “C”, the indistinguished Knight on a horse, and the “K” … they all have the same stroke/style going on.

That Travelers logo is bad. What they do is definitely improve what the team had. But, in the case of Arkansas, they went from Absolutely Atrocious to Bad.

Often, as I see it, what happens is they take a good idea and then just overkill it. (with icons upon icons upon icons, and then they go way overkill on type treatments and script) Readability is not a consideration in their designs. Uniqueness is all they aim for, apparently. And that “good idea” I reference could use another couple rounds of refinement/consideration.

But what really bothers me is that stroke I mention… a stroke of sameness. In the case of Charlotte, it absolutely sucks royal.

However, Eugene, Lexington… there are quite a few that have merit and charm. It seems like the more recent stuff is what suffers, particularly from the overkill.

The character icon is fun. The type is atrocious and NOT good design, nor an improvement on that original lovely (not perfect) script.

Same with Lexington Legends. Fun character. Horrible script. An improvement from the previous, but not “good” design. It’s time to call a spade a spade.

scott|
January 10, 2014 at 10:33 pm |

I thought Brandiose spent months and months in each community so they could design logos that “fit” the teams in those cities?

loserem|
January 10, 2014 at 9:30 am |

A change to the Colorado Rockies logo that Paul posts that doesn’t either:

A) eliminate the P*urple

or

B) include some reference to legalized marijuana.

Color me surprised.

Dumb Guy|
January 10, 2014 at 12:53 pm |

Dude, where’s my bat?

Benjamin|
January 10, 2014 at 9:34 am |

During the Nuggets/Thunder game Thrusday night, the sideline reporter (Sager maybe, I can’t remember) reported that nuggets coach Brian Shaw doesn’t mind his players wearing signature shoes of other players except when the Nuggets play that player. For example, no player was allowed to wear Kevin Durant’s signature shoe last night.

Matthew|
January 10, 2014 at 9:37 am |

Tony Bruno is way behind the times. Any Chicagoan knows that is what the double X’s are.

Connie|
January 10, 2014 at 9:51 am |

“Who remembers the Coach?” Kerouac’s mentor was the celebrated – in his time – Lou Little. He was the Coolumbia coach forever, when the Lions were good (Rose Bowl champs) and bad (later). Kerouac called him Lou Libble in his memoirs.

scottrj|
January 10, 2014 at 10:44 am |

Kerouac was highly-regarded enough as a high-school football player that Boston College, under soon-to-be-legendary coach Frank Leahy, offered him a scholarship. He chose Columbia instead to avail himself of the literary opportunities and nightlife as much if not more than the opportunity to play football. His supposed “bad attitude” wasn’t entirely a figment of his coach’s imagination.

Paul, do you ever see uniform elements or designs that fail the “is it good or is it stupid” test so hard that you don’t even want to talk about them here? I mean, Northwestern’s new unis are obviously going to be a big part of tomorrow’s piece, because everyone who reads this site will be expecting it. But they are almost so horrible that they don’t deserve that recognition. They are clearly bad– there’s no point in having a discussion about them.

KT|
January 10, 2014 at 11:08 am |

Anyone see DePaul’s basketball unis last night against Butler? Black numbers on blue jerseys, rendering the numbers very hard to see.

I did watch that game, and I had the same thought. It could have been worse, but it also could have been a lot better.

Danya|
January 10, 2014 at 11:20 am |

Although it doesn’t seem to be affecting much of an overall change (for now, anyway), the Pirates moving toward using the “P” more and the pirate logo less seems so, so stupid to me. Most teams would kill to have a name the design possibilities something fun like “pirates” engenders. And they go with a letter of the alphabet?

Craig|
January 10, 2014 at 12:34 pm |

I agree. I have a feeling that in 5-10 years the team will be bringing back the pirate to great fanfare.

I don’t know about that. They’re just demoting it from primary to secondary. They’re not even taking it off the uniforms. Won’t need much fanfare to bring it back – other than the team’s Wikipedia page, who’s to really know that it was even done?

BurghFan|
January 10, 2014 at 3:52 pm |

Everyone here?

And, of course, nothing prevents them from introducing another non-typographic logo whenever they feel like it.

arrScott|
January 10, 2014 at 3:53 pm |

Designing a logo ain’t cheap. The subtext of the P-promotion was that the Pirates tried to design a new pirate primary logo, and the result(s) of that effort tanked when tested with fans. That’s really a pretty embarrassing outcome, and expensive to boot; I doubt anyone involved will be eager to repeat the experience.

They really ought to just buy their own farm team in Bradenton, rename that team the Growers, then ship all the Marauders intellectual property to Pittsburgh. New pirate logo problem solved.

BurghFan|
January 10, 2014 at 6:53 pm |

I’m pretty sure they own the Bradenton team. Not that the logo does much for me.

BTW, I see that there’s a “Sunday alternate jersey” giveaway listed, so the Pirates will be wearing some kind of Sunday alt. I don’t know if it’s still the early ’70s unis, though.

TIm|
January 10, 2014 at 11:27 am |

Hey Paul, did you see the story today about the cold-weather super bowl and the “state of the art” apparel for the sidelines? The very first slide is of a jersey that is sort of a black and grey combo. I’m assuming that’s not meant to imply the on-field unis will be changed for the game, only that the non-participating folks might be wearing that jersey. Would you agree? Since it will be cold and anyone not playing will likely be wearing a jacket, etc., why would you need a special jersey for the non-pad wearing players?

To answer your question:
Answer 1: Merchandising!
Answer 2: I’m not sure your assumption is correct – they could very well produce those jerseys in team colors.
Answer 3: They always have a media day where every player dresses up in uniform sans pads.

The reporter from the NBC affiliate just called to apologize. They’re correcting the story.

matthew65|
January 10, 2014 at 1:44 pm |

The NBA logos as soccer logos in the basketball section of the ticker are worth a look. Very nice work.

My appreciation of the project is diminished by the haphazard assignment of championship stars (stars outside the main logo). Only the Bulls and Trailblazers are correct, and the Pistons get credit for the Lakers’ 16, while the Celtics are shortchanged by 14.

I have posted a more complete and pedantic comment on the site to provide the correct championship totals.

I actually am curious to see what UA has in store for ND. Over the years, since the end of Champion era through this Adidas era, while yes, ND has looked like ND, there have been some subtle changes that might not have made it 20 years ago or so. Just the fact they did special one-off uniforms when other programs with stoic looks like Alabama and Penn State wouldn’t dare shows me change is in the air. I also don’t think Coach Brian Kelly has any problem bucking tradtion. He left Cincy in a huff over facilities (mainly Nippert Stadium) and is now trying to get video boards and turf in South Bend. I would think he would (and has shown is) open to some changes.

There is a LOT they can do beside the navy/gold. Obviously green (used with gold or yellow) I could also see them experiment with a matte gold helmet for a one-off purpose.

Like you eluded to when you posted this as rumor, UA is going to want ND to be their showcase program and while I don’t think they’ll break from tradition overall, I think you’ll see more alts in the mix.

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James Burke|
January 10, 2014 at 11:55 pm |

People still say “weblog?”

Too Tall Paul|
January 10, 2014 at 10:56 pm |

I was really hoping to enjoy the NickNOB night in the NBA. But it only took a few minutes of watching it for it to feel contrived and forced…and, therefore, insanely stupid.

Big Al|
January 11, 2014 at 12:36 am |

The Pirates have been toning down the use of the Pirate logo for years and have said as much when they started using “Pride Passion Pittsburgh Pirates” as their slogan. What I do not understand is why they haven’t replaced the flat topped and under arched word mark above the Pirate logo to the same arch they have on the uniforms. They haven’t used that arch since the last game at Three Rivers. But seriously, lets get back to the 70’s smiling Bucco.

Blain|
January 11, 2014 at 9:50 am |

In response to the nicknames on the Heat, the question was is Dwyane Wade’s nickname really D. Wade. I worked at Marquette in the athletic department during Wade’s time on campus. Everyone called him D. Wade. No one called him Dwyane. I expected it to be something like D-Wade. So, yes, that’s his nickname at least back to his college days.

Fred|
January 11, 2014 at 6:54 pm |

Fergie Jenkins and Bob Gibson were both former ‘Trotters. Both Hall of Famers too.

Alex Allen|
January 11, 2014 at 11:36 pm |

Regarding the high school basketball team in Arizona and their gray home uniforms, NFHS rules clearly state that home uniforms must be white, http://www.nfhs.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=9083. The rule used to state “light” for the home team but that was changed about 5 or so years ago. The coach, athletic director and vendor all should have known this rule. Game officials are often inconsistent in enforcing these types of rules.Too bad for the kids. Those are uniforms are pretty sharp.